Software engineering internship: API compatibility for binary software integration

Introduction

Software plays a crucial role in ASML products, particularly within the Applications business line. Due to the complexity of our domain, multiple teams collaborate to develop, maintain, test, package, and distribute software components. These components are integrated into products and applications, either as binaries or source code.

Your assignment

The choice between binary integration and source code integration depends on the specific needs and constraints of a project. Both methods have their advantages and are suitable for different scenarios. Often, a combination of both approaches is used to leverage their benefits.

Objectives

Our team develops, maintains and distributes multiple inter-dependent C++ libraries These are binary integrated in various products in various combinations. We aim to investigate techniques to ensure that binary libraries maintain backward compatible in both source interfaces and Application Binary Interfaces (ABI). This includes proactively catching incompatibility issues, especially in setups where dependent libraries are integrated into products and base libraries can be updated independently.

Key Questions:

• Can software changes that break ABI compatibility be truly guarded? What about ABI incompatible changes due to transient dependencies?

• Are there techniques to mitigate ABI compatibility issues?

• All publicly available tools to test ABI compatibility are either obsolete and/or not maintained. Is this a sign that the industry has shifted towards other software integration methods?

• Can we implement an ABI compatibility tool supporting modern C++ compilers?

Expected Deliverables

• Thesis with an overview of state-of-the-art.

• A prototype demonstrating a chosen method on (a selection of) our libraries.

Your profile

To be a great match for this internship you:

• Are a graduating bachelor or a master student in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a similar field.

• Have experience with Linux development environments, C++ and related development toolchains.

• Preferably have some experience with compilers (nice-to-have).

• Are able to work independently and autonomously and are pro-active.

• Have strong communication skills and are fluent in English (verbal and written).

This is a final-year bachelor or a master internship for a minimum of 6 months, for 4 to 5 days per week (at least 3 days onsite). The start date of this internship is September 2025.

Other requirements you need to meet

• You are enrolled at an educational institute for the entire duration of the internship;

• You are located in the Netherlands to perform your internship. In case you are currently living/studying outside of the Netherlands, your CV/motivation letter includes the willingness to relocate;

• If you are a non-EU citizen, studying in the Netherlands, your university is willing to sign the documents relevant for doing an internship (i.e., Nuffic agreement).